Challenging the Japanese government’s approach to the death penalty

Sato, Mai (2013) Challenging the Japanese government’s approach to the death penalty. In: Hood, R. and Deva, S. (eds.) Confronting Capital Punishment in Asia. Oxford University Press, pp. 205-218. ISBN 9780199685776.

Abstract

Appeals to human rights principles backed by judicial and political leadership have been the major driver of abolition. State institutions in abolitionist countries treat the death penalty as a human rights issue, which should be universally applied. Japan – being a retentionist country – argues that the death penalty is a matter of individual domestic policy, based on popular sovereignty. The Japanese government’s official justification for retention is public opinion. This paper criticises the government’s position not by deploying human rights arguments but by challenging the validity of claims about ‘majority public support’ used to justify retention. It considers the implications of the Japanese approach and offers recommendations as to how the Japanese government, and more generally other retentionist countries, should interpret and make use of social survey evidence concerning the death penalty.

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